Costs and choices7 min read

PPC agency, AI ad manager or do it yourself: which fits your business?

There is no single right answer. The best choice depends on your budget, how complex your account is, how much time you have and how much control you want. This guide sets the three options side by side and ends with a plain “choose this if” list.

What each option actually is

A PPC agency (or freelancer) is a person or team who runs your Google Ads and Meta campaigns for a monthly fee. They plan, build, change and report. The good ones also advise on offers, landing pages and tracking.

An AI ad manager is software that works inside your ad accounts every day. You give it a goal and some rules. It makes routine changes itself and asks you before bigger ones. It is different from the automation already built into the platforms, such as Google’s Smart Bidding, which sets bids inside a campaign but does not decide how to split your budget, what to report to you or when to stop.

Doing it yourself means you, or someone on your team, log in and run the accounts directly. Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager charge no fee to use; you pay only for the ads.

Side by side

Agency fees and minimum spends are typical ranges from 2026 UK and US pricing guides (see Google Ads management cost for the detail). They are not fixed prices.

The case for an agency

A good agency brings judgement you cannot buy in software. They have seen many accounts in your sector. They can tell you your offer is weak, your landing page is slow or your price is out of line. They write new ads, plan launches and handle tricky policy problems.

The weakness is attention. A monthly fee buys a set amount of time, and small accounts often get the least of it. Many agencies also set minimum ad spends of around £2,000 to £5,000 a month, which rules them out for many owner-run businesses.

If you hire one, make sure the ad accounts stay in your name, the notice period is short and the reports show enquiries and sales, not just clicks.

The case for an AI ad manager

The strength of an AI ad manager is consistency. It checks the account every day, keeps spend on pace and does not forget. For a small business, that daily attention is often what is missing: search terms that waste money for weeks, a budget that runs out mid-month, a campaign that stopped converting and nobody noticed.

The weakness is that software works within the goal you give it. It will not rethink your offer or tell you to raise prices. It also needs good data. If your conversion tracking is broken, any system optimising to it will optimise to the wrong thing. That applies to agencies too, but a person is more likely to spot it.

Before you trust one, check three things. Can it run in a watch-only mode first? Does it explain each change with reasons and numbers? And are there hard limits on what it can change without asking?

The case for doing it yourself

Nobody knows your business better than you. You know which enquiries turn into good jobs and which waste your time. Running ads yourself also teaches you a lot about your customers, and it costs nothing but time.

The platforms have made this easier and harder at once. Automated bidding and campaign types like Performance Max do more of the work, but they also hide more. Without regular checks, broad match keywords can drift into irrelevant searches and budgets can overspend on busy days: Google allows a campaign to spend up to twice its average daily budget on a given day, while capping the month.

If you go it alone, set aside time each week and use a checklist. Our 20-minute Google Ads audit covers the essentials.

Mixed options work too

These choices are not exclusive. Common combinations:

• DIY plus a one-off audit. Pay a specialist once to fix tracking and structure, then run it yourself.
• AI ad manager plus occasional expert help. Software does the daily work; a person helps with setup, strategy or a stuck problem.
• Agency for strategy, software for monitoring. Useful when an agency works monthly but you want daily checks between visits.

Choose an agency if…

• You spend enough that the fee is a small share of your budget, typically several thousand a month or more.
• You need new campaigns, creative and strategy, not just upkeep.
• You run many channels or markets and want one team accountable.
• You have found an agency whose past clients look like you.

Choose an AI ad manager if…

• Your campaigns are already built and working, and you want them looked after every day.
• An agency fee would be a large share of your ad spend.
• You want to stay in charge of big decisions without doing the daily work.
• Your conversion tracking is in place, or you are willing to fix it first.

Do it yourself if…

• Your budget is small and your account is simple: a few campaigns, one goal.
• You have a few hours a week and enjoy learning the platforms.
• You are testing whether paid ads work for your business at all.

Where AdsEye fits

AdsEye is an AI ad manager. Its AI ads specialist, Max, takes your goal, whether that is enquiries, sales, bookings, calls or website visits. He optimises every campaign against it each morning, keeps spend on pace hourly and reports on the 1st in plain English. Within set rules he can move budgets by up to 20% and £50 a day per campaign; bigger moves always wait for your yes, with reasons and numbers. Google Ads and Meta connect from your own accounts, which stay yours.

It costs £20 per brand per month, with no minimum term, and works from about £500 a month of ad spend per platform. If you want a person too, expert support is £120 a month. You can start with 7 days in watch mode, where Max shows every change he would make and changes nothing live. Results vary; no tool or agency can guarantee them.